Systems are continuously being developed that permit electronic devices to communicate with each other without a wired connection. In order for the devices to communicate, a wireless protocol (i.e., standard) may be used to define hardware and software parameters such that the devices are able to send, receive, and interpret data. For example, the 802.11 family of standards is provided by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and describes, among other features, medium access control (MAC) and physical layer (PHY) specifications that may be used to implement wireless local area networks (WLANs). While existing wireless standards allow electronic devices to communicate, there may be no provisions to provide new modes of communication (e.g., transmitting data using a new data rate). Additionally, existing wireless standards may not provide provisions that permit a vendor to communicate using a proprietary mode.
One way in which a vendor may communicate using a new and/or proprietary mode is to use one or more reserved bits of a wireless protocol data frame. However, using a reserved bit may cause incompatibility problems with devices that expect the reserved bit to have a different value. Additionally, incompatibility problems may occur if vendors design devices that have conflicting interpretations of what the reserved bit value means.